Nineteenth-Century: A Period of Progress for Women in Europe - Coursework Example

Nineteenth century: A period of “progress” for women in Europe Almighty creator in his divine wisdom segregated his creation into two frames, men andwomen, each of them unique in their character and disposition. Man has been deemed as an emblem of power and authority since time immemorial. The responsibility of feeding the family as a breadwinner has been volunteered by men, which enhanced his power stature. On the contrary, woman has been targeted like a sitting duck and she had been suffering from remorseless cruelty by the power holders. The history of mankind reveals to us that woman has encountered formidable obstacles in her life time which hindered her progress to build up as a complete entity. In spite of that, the time witnesses to us that this roughshod ride over her had not undermined her confidence to rebuild and emerge as a new life form. This paper examines the role of women in the nineteenth century in Europe with an emphasis on describing whether it has been the inceptive point for progression of women or not. To reach a valid conclusion it is imperative to describe how the era for nineteenth century has been changing for the women with respect to previous periods. Hence, we shall describe and analyze the sweeping changes that have occurred in nineteenth century such as in the realm of education, industry, culture and politics that have significantly affected the women life. Nineteenth century stirred up a wave of transformation for the women of all European countries. Women positioned on different echelons of the society, all contributed equally bringing about a revolutionary transformation. The century was deemed as the century of revolution, peppered with insurrections, inventions, and new changes in the legal domain. European formed new states, invaded overseas empires and formulated new set of rules and regulations for their kingdom. In addition to that, this era was characterized by dramatic changes in industrial and technological domain. Railroads, electric light, sophisticated machines, and commercialized agriculture were all instituted in that juncture of the human civilization. The starting point of women progress gets its root not in the nineteenth century but during 1780’s. During this period, a concatenation of ideological and structural changes ushered in woman lives of Europe. Previously, the role of woman revolved around the definition of domestic engineer and she was considered to be a bondswoman, trampled under the feet of the power carrier. However, the French revolution of 1789 brought about the most profound change in the lives of woman. The French regime underwent a series of social and political upheavals. Each of the new governments questioned about the authority of monarchy and church, empowered the common people and reshaped the limits between public and private thus altering the role of man and woman. People’s private lives were an issue of grave concern during that juncture of the history. Two public institutions formed to propagate their idea about woman’s private life. The revolutionary state formed to support modernity while the Catholic Church represented the idea of traditionalism. These two gallant endeavours propagating their respective theories had profound repercussion on woman residing in that era. However, the impact of modernity theory overpowered the other ideas about woman’s life and it remained as a sign for posterity. The Enlightenment movement in Europe laid the foundation for modern notion of state and society which emphasized reason and individualism rather than tradition. As a part of the Enlightenment culture, women began to actively participate in an array of social and intellectual activities within the private boundaries of their homes which than became a part of their public realm. They arranged salons which are considered to be the foundational sites of woman empowerment, education, and assimilation (Fuchs & Thompson, 2005). Women belonging to the upper echelon of the society began to organize meetings in their opulent homes, inviting the leading characters, philosophers, scientists and other prominent personalities in their gatherings. Women enjoyed the role of hostesses in these social gatherings. They actively participated in the conversation and could influence the direction of day to day politics in their salons. Soon these salons became established arbiters of opinion and those who were involved in these discussions gained immense social prestige in the community. It looked as thought women were dwelling in the pinnacle of civilization where they were empowered to interrogate the authorities of highest eminence, and even to an extent where they can question the prevailing cultural norms and values which was inconceivable in the foregoing eras. The pivotal role of women made it possible to transform the values of the society and form a new flourishing civil society that functioned at a level between an individual of an ordinary class and the court. These salons were later recognized as an indispensable tool to challenge and enfeeble the power of the monarchy and church. They bridged the gap between public and private domain and transformed the private sites which were presided by women of intellectual and educated essence to a public place for exchange of ideas, sociability, and power for women. In the English culture, women participated in myriad of voluntary societies such as reading clubs. For instance, in London the giants of literary art and enlightened people fraternized and socialized with each other over tea in English women’s homes which are described by the argot of “bluestockings” (Fuchs & Thompson, 2005). These social meetings were similar in their regards with salons however they were governed by people of much higher intellectual capacity. Women used to participate in these bluestockings and they primarily mooted ideas about women’s education and rights. Bluestocking women vehemently wrote about women’s social status and in other variety of genres, as a result of which their writings gained immense popularity in the society. Fanny Burney (1752-1840) and Hannah More (1745-1835) are two of the protagonists and members of bluestocking community whose writings and lives had overwhelming influence into the nineteenth century (Fuchs & Thompson, 2005). The notion of individual rights was the crux of the nineteenth century. The Enlightenment and Revolutionary ideologies avidly supported this idea and crushed the traditional strands of thoughts. However, the impact of this campaign had minor repercussions on women and they were still deprived from their rights, including that of citizenship. Olympe de Gouges was one of the revolutionary writer and agitator of that period who modelled her most influential piece of work, the Declaration of the Rights of Woman. Based on the principles of natural law and her incisive arguments she proved that woman should have the rights of full citizenship. She did not repudiated the role of women as a mother but she maintained that women could be equally good mothers as well as they can enjoy absolute rights of citizenship. Similarly, a Dutch woman Etta Palm d’Aelders opposed the law which dictated that women can only be prosecuted for adultery. Women began to launch emancipation movements throughout the Europe where their first concern was to improve the legal status of women and create employment opportunities. The women’s movement in their respective countries placed themselves at the service of national interests through by which they gained recognition of political and civil rights. Even in some countries of Europe, franchise was granted to the women, as a result of which many of the women leaders took an active role in politics and became members of parliament (Paletschek & Pietrow, 2004). All these legendary activities made it possible to challenge the law and turn the tables toward women. From the conventional stereotyped point of view, education and femininity clash with each other. Man is seen as technically competitive and innovative in education whereas a woman is seen to be inept in most of the fields (Groot & Schrover, 1995). Women use machines in their homes but whenever the machine malfunctions, their dependence on men becomes apparent. However, this gap between man and women lapses provided if the women is given a chance to acquire knowledge and get educated about the subject matter. In the midst of the nineteenth century, French author Jules Michelet declared “every woman is a school”. By this he was not making a mockery of women rather he meant that every woman had the capability to educate and illuminate their children. The idea of education among women was one of the crucial breakthroughs in the nineteenth century. Before the nineteenth century, there was a dearth of education among women of Europe and it was acquired either in home, boarding schools or in school run by the religious orders. These religious schools were limited in their education disciplines and they offered a little in the way of subjects such as Management, Geography or Psychology. However, women clamoured for secular education which was more formal in its essence. As the time rolled on its pages, education became an element of paramount importance in woman’s life. Formal education increased over the course of century for varying reasons not connected with increasing women’s intellectual standards. European states used education as a tool to increase loyalty to the nation as it was influential in its ability to inculcate pupils with national sentiments. However, as the time rushed on, the importance of woman’s education was associated with enhancing her intellectual maturity and professional status. Catherine II of Russia established the Smolney Institute for Girls of Noble Birth in 1764. During its inception, it only educated 900 girls out of 40 million but yet it is regarded as the stepping stone for education of women. In France, the Revolutionary government made it mandatory for every girl to acquire primary education. As the century progressed, the interest for education among women improved in leaps and bounds. In Russia, 2007 girls attended school in 1802 while during 1834, the numbers increased to 4864. In the German states, secondary girl’s schools increased from 342 in 1850 to 869 in 1901 (Fuchs & Thompson, 2005). The need for advanced education spurred the interest of several women and they actively contributed in establishing formal institutions. Medical institutions were first of their kind in advanced education which allowed women to enrol and receive degrees. Women also started to design paid series of courses, such as the Alarchin courses in St Petersburg, the Lublian courses in Moscow (both established 1869), and similar courses in Prague (1890) and Vienna (1892) opened to women without entry requirements (Fuchs & Thompson, 2005). These series of endeavours produced positive results and women started to achieve various milestones. Women were being recognized as scientists and the best known name of that period is of Marie Sklodowska Curie (1867–1934). Similarly, Clémence Royer (1830–1902), enjoyed widespread fame for her work in anthropological and eugenics circles. Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) was a prodigiously gifted statistician and her method of statistical compilation for hospital was widely adopted throughout the Europe. German born self-educated, Augusta Ada Byron devised the first computer programming language after studying the newly invented Jacquard loom and her work remains so influential that the computer scientists have named a computer programming language, “Ada” after her name. The nineteenth century has also been a critical juncture in the employment and labour history of women. The century underwent drastic changes in the labour industry as technological innovations and new employment practices became woven into the work experiences of working women. During 1830’s mechanization of cotton, woollen, worsted and few other areas of lace production induced a large number of women joining in factories initially as spinners but increasingly as weavers (Kathryn, 2001). By the middle of the nineteenth century almost 300,000 women were employed in the factories of British domination. In Irish territory, nearly 70 percent of the workforce in spinning mills comprised of women (Kathryn, 2001). In Germany the workforce population of women rose from approximately 400,000 in 1882 to 1.5 million in 1895 and 2.1 million in 1907 (Fuchs & Thompson, 2005) . However, throughout the century wages of women had been strongly debated and they were described as a source of cheap labour. In spite of the fact, a significant strata of women enjoyed reasonable pay and some status as upper servants, craft workers or teachers. Finally, women even started to take initiatives by opening their own business and it spurred a wave of entrepreneurship among women. These women started their own business or trade to support themselves, or a family of children and worked to save a dowry (Simonton, 2006). It is made explicit from the above examination of women’s dynamics of life that nineteenth century had brought a radical transformation in women’s life. The period can be easily recognized as an inceptive point for women’s progress socially, politically, educationally and in the industrial environment. It is incontrovertible that women had been dogged by perennial problems in the history but yet there resolute character and genuine commitment made it possible to turn the tables over. Bibliography Fuchs, R. G. & Thompson V. E. 2005, Women in Nineteenth-Century Europe, Palgrave MacMillan, New York Groot, G. & Schrover, M. 1995, Women Workers and Technological Change in Europe in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Taylor & Francis e-Library Kathryn, G. 2001, British Women in the Nineteenth Century, Palgrave MacMillan, UK Paletschek, S. & Pietrow, B. 2004, Women’s Emancipation Movements in the Nineteenth Century, Stanford University Press, California Simonton, D. 2006, The Routledge History of Women in Europe since 1700, Routledge New York 2006 Read More